¬†Lord Alton of Liverpool returned from an investigative mission to Darfur yesterday morning and is calling on the Government to follow US Secretary of State, Colin Powell's lead by determining that genocide is occurring in the remote Western region of Sudan. He said: "Unless Tony Blair uses his trip to Sudan tomorrow to declare that genocide is happening in Darfur, the pattern of systematic killing of innocent civilians will continue unabated," says Lord Alton. "What more has to happen before we call this by its true name and take the urgent action required to prevent further loss life? We have taken first hand evidence which corroborates the UN's estimate that 50,000 people have died already ≠ 10,000 of them last month alone. A further 1.4 million Sudanese have been internally displaced," Alton declared. The life peer, known for his outspoken defense of the persecuted church world-wide was prompted to visit Darfur when the Government, in a reply to his question in the House of Lords four weeks ago, refused to declare that the murder of Black African Muslims by the Arab Janjaweed militia qualifies as genocide. "On my way to Sudan, I visited the genocide sites of Rwanda and listened to the testimony of survivors. It isn't hard to see that the same thing is happening now in Darfur, where I met traumatised refugees telling exactly the same stories of systematic murder, rape and looting." Alton added. Alton has urged other parliamentarians and MEPs to visit the region to see for themselves the effects of the Janjaweed campaign which is being directly supported by the Sudanese Government. "People would be surprised if the Prime Minister visited the Janjaweed's paymasters and quartermasters in Khartoum but didn't visit the victims in Darfur. Unless Tony Blair uses his visit to Sudan to declare that this is genocide, the world will think Britain's Foreign policy is nothing better than appeasement," says Lord Alton. Jubilee Campaign has published a full report on the findings of its visit called 'Darfur: The Genocide continues.' For more information visit: http://www.jubileeaction.co.uk